Thursday, February 9, 2017

Oroville spillway failure

Raining hard all day.

The spillway test overnight didn't work, as the erosion got much worse and started eating away the spillway uphill.


Nevertheless, they simply must release water to prevent an emergency spillway overflow.  

Better to lose the entire lower spillway than have an overflow.


Now the water has just busted out the side entirely.  


It's better to just let it go, and repair next summer.

7 comments:

  1. That's interesting. I would have expected it to destroy the concrete below the failure rather than above.

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    Replies
    1. Turbulence at the edge....tears the lip of the concrete off.

      You'd think that they could have placed some metal across the gap early on. 3/4 or 1" plate welded and drilled into place would have made it last a while.

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  2. What will really get interesting is if the erosion works its way back hill and undercuts the dam higher up.

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  3. What about the fate of fish which may be caught in this spill by no fault of their own? Where is the outcry about THAT?

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  4. Didn't this happen to the same spillway about 25 years ago?

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    Replies
    1. Don't know. Maybe you are thinking of the Auburn coffer dam collapse. That was dramatic.

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  5. Found this:

    Huge Hole Opens Up at California's Oroville Dam Spillway https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwoDVsTQSbA

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